FM Global using sports to link message, markets

By Rhonda Miller PBN Staff Writer

Hurricanes, tornados, floods, wildfires and other natural disasters claim lives and leave in their wake the destruction of businesses and livelihoods around the globe. And the growth of complex international supply chains means these disasters cast a wide economic net.

FM Global using sports to link message, markets

IMAGE COURTESY FM GLOBAL
GETTING BACK UP: FM Global’s first global marketing campaign is using sports images to personify the meaning of resilience and give examples of overcoming obstacles and challenges.

Posted:
Saturday, April 6, 2013 12:05 am

By Rhonda Miller PBN Staff Writer

Hurricanes, tornados, floods, wildfires and other natural disasters claim lives and leave in their wake the destruction of businesses and livelihoods around the globe. And the growth of complex international supply chains means these disasters cast a wide economic net.

The convergence of these elements – natural disasters and the global marketplace – is the territory where Johnston-based FM Global has developed a new marketing strategy focused on resilience.

“It’s our first global marketing campaign,” said FM Global Senior Vice President for Marketing Roberta Butler about the marketing project launched April 1. “As an American-based company, we’d run marketing programs in the U.S. Then we’d go and develop something in sync with the local markets.”

The company’s major markets are the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany and Australia. But companies in those markets, and their related businesses, as well as public-sector clients like universities and hospitals, add up to FM Global clients in 130 countries.

“These markets are coming together more all the time as the world becomes a smaller place, especially because of the availability of technology and the speed of communications,” said Butler. “So we decided it’s time to speak with one voice.”

FM Global’s message is: “When you’re resilient, you’re in business.”

Market research brought the resilience message into clear focus, even though FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers, has been helping businesses prevent, deal with or recover from disaster since it was founded in 1835, Butler said.

Research also defined the theme of the message: sports.

“We have not used sports before,” Butler said. “We took a step back and put a global team together to develop a single voice for FM Global that we can use in all of our key markets, ways of depicting resilience. The universal language of sports rose right to the top.”

Still images and videos include men’s and women’s soccer, rugby and boxing.

The images personify the meaning of resilience and give examples of overcoming obstacles and challenges.

“Resilience prepares,” says one of the segments of the marketing campaign that features a boxer. “Any great boxer knows resilience is an attribute acquired through years of training. For more than 175 years, our scientists and engineers have tested innovative ways not only to help prevent property loss, but also to help businesses bounce back stronger should one occur.”

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